Kenya seeks Canada’s support to secure its ports, borders
Kenya has enlisted the support of Canada in her quest for technology-driven border surveillance and maritime security.
This was one of the outcomes of a high-level consultative meeting between Principal Secretary for Internal Security Dr Raymond Omollo and senior officials from the High Commission of Canada in Kenya, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Canadian Coast Guard (CCG).
Omollo described the two agencies as among the most “resourceful friends” that Kenya has been looking up to, and exuded confidence that they will be instrumental in facilitating consistent and predictable movement of people and goods across the country’s land, air, and maritime borders.
“We are looking at two agencies that have positioned Canada as one of the global pacesetters in travel- and trade-related border technology as well as marine search and rescue,” he said. “It is our hope that we will secure more capacity-building and technology support from them and progressively secure our air, sea and land ports and borders," he said.
The PS further divulged that Canada cognizes Kenya’s commitment to the global war against cross-border and transnational crimes, key among them illegal migration, piracy, illegal fishing and resource exploitation, pollution, trafficking of humans and narcotics, smuggling of weapons, and terrorism among others.
“Our vision is to catch up with other parts of the world in the deployment of advanced capability and integrated technologies in expediting traveler processing and facilitating secure two-way trade across our ports of entry and exit," he added.
Kenya has 35 one-stop border posts and border control checkpoints and plans to operationalize more facilities and e-gates equipped with smart tools for secure travel and trade. The projects have been conceptualized by the Border Control and Operations Coordination Committee (BCOCC).
